Saudi's Rabigh Power Station goes into operation

Saudi Arabia's Rabigh Power Station, built by SEPCO III, a POWERCHINA subsidiary, went into formal operation at 10pm, on April 10, after a 30-day reliability test and 24-hour net output test.

Panoramic view of the Rabigh power plant, Saudi Arabia.

As of now, the power station has passed all the tests specified in the contract, which was signed in July, 2009. It is a subcritical fossil fuel power plant with an installed capacity of 2 × 660 MW. All of its main equipment such as fuel boilers, gas turbines, and power generators were manufactured in China. The contractor paid special attention to every detail of the work to assure the highest quality of the entire project.

A Close-up of the power plant.

The project is of great significance to the Sino-Saudi economic and trade relations in many ways: the largest project undertaken by a Chinese company there; the first power plant contract between a Chinese and a Saudi Arabian company (breaking through the monopoly of European, United States, Korean, and Japanese on this market); the first successful financing case of Bank of China in the in Middle East; and the largest capacity single generator unit in the region.